(Lion king: Pixabay)
In a world where only animals exist, there lived a lion. He was
the king of all the animals. He was the mightiest of them all. “I am the
greatest. I am smart. I am superior. Everyone shall obey me,” the lion thought.
“I expect everyone to bow to me and worship me. For I am the king.”
The lion had this thought because he was in fact the mightiest
of them all. He kept them safe from dangerous evil hyenas. The hyenas knew he
was strong so they kept away from him and his kingdom.
Every morning the lion would go out and let out a loud roar. It
was a reminder to let the animals know he was the king. The animals were
expected to bow down to him and ask if they could serve him in any way. He
expected all of them to do that every single morning.
One morning as he was doing his usual routine, he noticed a
small rabbit lying down and not giving him attention. “Who is this foolish
rabbit?” he thought. “I must punish this rabbit since he thinks he is more
superior than me.”
“Who
are you? Why are you not paying obeisance to the king? You must be punished,”
the lion said to the rabbit.
(Rabbit: Pixabay)
The rabbit responded, “I have already made my obeisance to the
king, and that is not you.”
The lion was furious. “How dare this little rabbit disrespect me
like that? He is safe from hyenas because of me,” he thought. “Who is this king
that you are talking about?” the lion asked the rabbit.
“On my way here I stumbled upon a large lion. He told me that he
was the king and everyone shall obey him because he is much stronger than you.
He said you are weak and he can definitely destroy you,” the rabbit said to the
lion.
Hearing this from the rabbit made the lion more angry. “Who
would ever dare to say this? I am the only lion in this kingdom. Where would
this lion have come from?” the lion thought. He was confused and wanted to meet
this other lion. He had to show them who the real king was.
“Bring me to this lion. I want to show him that I am stronger. I
am the king and no one will take my place,” the lion told the rabbit.
The rabbit agreed to take the lion and lead him into the forest.
The lion was eager to find this other lion that claimed to be king. They walked
to a stream and the lion felt impatient and could not wait any longer. He felt
a rush in his body and was ready to attack any second. “I am so angry that I
will attack the second I see him,” he thought.
All of a sudden the lion heard the rabbit screaming and pointing
into the stream. “He is hiding in there.” The lion looked where the rabbit was
pointing and there he saw a massive lion. “Wow, this lion looks just like me,”
he thought. He still had that rush and instantly thought to attack this lion.
He did not stop to think it was a stream, and as he jumped to attack, he fell
in the water.
The
rabbit laughed and walked away. “How can you be so foolish if you are king?” he
thought.
Author’s note: This story is based on the original “How the
Rabbit Killed the Lion.” In the original story the rabbit fooled the lion. The
rabbit was scared that the lion might kill him so he thought lying was the only
way he could get out of this mess. He told the lion that a devil that lived in
a stream told him that she was stronger than the lion. At the end, the rabbit
took the lion to a stream and lied to him that his reflection was the devil. He
then attacked and drowned in the water.
I kept my story similar to
this storyline. I thought it would be interesting to write this in the lion’s
point of view. I wanted to express how and why the lion felt so superior.
I changed the devil character to be another lion because I wanted to
create another conflict. He quickly forgot why he was angry in the first place
and focused on the fact that there was another lion trying to take his place. I
also wanted to keep this story short and sweet. By doing so, it shows how
quickly one can be fooled and how anger can lead to situations like these. It
also shows how deceiving the rabbit is.
Bibliography:
Tibetan folk Tales by A.L. Shelton. Link to How the Rabbit Killed the Lion
